At the Heritage 2008 FUN sale it was
the Attack of the 1839-C Quarter Eagles
as there were no less than a dozen (!)
examples of this popular Classic Head
issue available for sale. How did these
coins do and what nuggets o’ information
can be gleaned from the auction results?

The
1839-C quarter eagles in question ranged
in grade from a low of PCGS VF30 to a
high of NGC MS61 and included ten coins
in NGC holders, one in a PCGS holder and
one orphan in an ANACS net AU50 holder
that had been cleaned.

Two interesting things can be
determined right away from the statement
made in the paragraph above. The first
is that 1839-C quarter eagles are pretty
difficult to define as “rare” if eleven
examples appear in one sale (although if
you read the rest of this blog I contend
that a certain type of 1839-C quarter
eagle is, in fact, quite rare…) and that
secondly, NGC seems to have the market
cornered on this date. I’ll let you draw
your own conclusions about this (cue
raised brow…)

One last thing before we analyze. If
I were a consignor I’m not sure I’d be
thrilled that my 1839-C had to share the
spotlight with eleven of its cousins.
But, to Heritage’s everlasting credit,
these giant auctions continually prove
to me that there are enough people
looking at the coins that quality
typically trumps quantity.

An
interesting place to begin is with Lots
3809 and 3810. The former was in an old
green label holder and was called VF30
by PCGS (I graded it AU50 or thereabouts
but noted in my catalog that it had been
cleaned at one time) while the latter
was in an NGC 45 holder and was, in my
opinion, pretty marginal for the grade.
The PCGS VF30 coin sold for $4887.50
while the NGC EF45 brought $4,600. This
result wasn’t really a surprise but it
doesn’t point out that when someone
analyzes the Heritage auction archives
they should assume that the 1839-C
quarter eagle that they own in VF30 is
worth $4,887.50.

The next pair to compare are the two
examples graded AU53 by NGC, Lots 3812
and 3813. The result of these coins was
interesting to say the least. The former
sold for $20,700 while the latter
brought $5,750. How is it possible for
two coins graded the same by NGC to
bring such a gigantic difference? The
coin that sold for $20,700 was gorgeous.
It was in an old “fatty holder,” had
lovely original color and I thought it
was a very solid AU58. As nice as the
coin was, I was pretty surprised it sold
for essentially MS60 to MS61 money. The
other AU53 in the sale? It wasn’t very
nice and the fact that it had to compete
against the Lovely Lot 3812 couldn’t
have helped.

No less than four NGC AU58’s were in
the sale and every one of them brought
$12,650. With Trends at $18,000, this
seems a little bit cheap, no? Well
actually I think the numbers were pretty
right on when you consider that all four
of the coins were not exactly high end
for the grade. I was a bit surprised
that Lot 3085 sold for the same as Lot
3082-3084. Lot 3085 was what I call on
“OOG” coin. This acronym stands for
“original overgraded.” Which means that
although I didn’t think the coin passed
the Winter Test as an AU58, it did at
least have natural color and a decent
overall appearance for the issue. Had
this been the only 1839-C in AU58 in the
sale perhaps it might have brought an
extra 5-10%.

Neither the MS60 or MS61 examples in
the auction sold. I didn’t think either
one was very nice and both were reserved
too high; never a great combination.

Remember earlier in this blog when I
mentioned that despite there being
twelve examples in the sale, a certain
type of 1839-C quarter eagle was still
rare? I think the fact that only one of
these twelve coins had original
coloration and was high end for the
issue says something important. Most
1839-C quarter eagles have been cleaned
or processed at one time and the
one-in-twelve ratio for originality
seems accurate in my experience.

So what did I learn about this issue
as the result of The Attack of the
1839-C Quarter Eagles? Well, for one I
learned that NGC AU58 examples are worth
$12,650. I also learned that nice,
original coins still bring great prices
even when “lost” in huge sales and when
competing against multiples examples of
the same date. And I learned that if I
had a nice 1839-C quarter eagle in an
old holder, I would resist temptation
and sell it “as is.”